Rational Roundup #7 – … And Now Change!

Now, looking back on many publications this year a question still remains unanswered: How much bias does each of us carry around with himself? Striving to be an as-rational-as-possible-person, we need to confront our own biases at some point. Looking into the mirror, we might discover flaws in our own behavior, decision-making and dissonances between our real and perceived self as well as the role we play in everyday life. Moreover, those tendencies can even affect our relationships with our loved ones – in most cases without our knowledge.

In almost every culture we can encounter the start of a new year being paired with resolutions. Today I want to invite you to start looking in the mirror. The best way to try it, is by using the Implicit Association Test, founded by scientists of Harvard University, University of Washington and University of Virginia:

“It is well known that people don’t always ‘speak their minds’, and it is suspected that people don’t always ‘know their minds’. Understanding such divergences is important to scientific psychology. This web site presents a method that demonstrates the conscious-unconscious divergences much more convincingly than has been possible with previous methods. This new method is called the Implicit Association Test, or IAT for short. In addition, this site contains various related information. The value of this information may be greatest if you try at least one test first…”

This year I published 20 essays and 30in30s related to behavioral science and biases. However, trying the Implicit Association Test, I realized what I already sensed: That I still have quite some potential to improve my thinking and decision-making.